When it comes to employee development, training available to employees including both line level employees and management can be regarded as an important part for employee development. Orientation has actually played a significant role in getting new employees familiar with the hotel and assisting them in establishing contact with hotel and other colleagues. And after the probation period, both line level employees and management will be trained about knowledge related to Blue Energy and Make It Right series and such training will be limited within six months since their entry day. In addition, safety training and legal issues training will as well be an inevitable part of all employees’ training so that they can be familiar with how to guarantee safety and prevent from breaking any law while providing service to guests. But what has to be especially mentioned is that employees from different departments and of different posts are equipped with exclusive training programs. For example, employees in the engineering department have to be trained about IT technology and privacy security.

Another great contribution toward employee development is the Hilton Worldwide University which is an online training site specially set up by Hilton for all the hotel employees. On this website, it will provide different courses and training materials for employees from different departments. Usually, the human resources department will schedule the training courses for all level management employees on this site and they have to complete the training within the specified time. When they finish their training in the due time, they have to provide proof to the human resources department. It has been testified that Hilton Worldwide University is a powerful way of educating and training staff. Under the gradual training and education, all the employees in Hilton can have a clear picture about Hilton and about what their main responsibilities are.

In the meanwhile, information will be effectively communicated through the organization for each and every day. Everyday all departments will hold a short morning meeting to share the most updated information or news of the hotel. If there is any problem or issue happened the day before, the department manager or on-duty supervisor will also refer to it during the meeting, hoping that all the employees can pay close attention to it. It is believed that the morning meeting can play a vital role in the operation of the hotel and the staff performance and all the employees seem to be with high enthusiasm toward it. For the housekeeping department, the morning meeting can be regarded as a chance for the employees to get feedback about their yesterday’s work and a reminder as for how they should behave today.

What is special about Hilton is that there are three TV screen sets in different locations within the hotel, such as cafeteria, right beside service elevator and hallway. Those TVs will broadcast repeatedly rolling about the overall score of our hotel, mission statement, latest news within the hotel, such as introduction about new employees, monthly blue energy star winner, photos of recent activities, etc. As far as I am concerned, these TV screen sets have really helped a lot toward employees’ keeping in pace with the latest news about the hotel because those three TV screen sets are actually in eye-catching places so that all the employees can from time to time look through the information demonstrated. Furthermore, I hold that it can be conducive to maintain the stability of hotel’s service level and it can at the same time deepen the relationship between the hotel and the staff. Broadcasting repeatedly rolling about staff information can enable the staff to feel Hilton’s service tenet “show me you care”. I can still remember clearly that the Director of Human Resources has ever told me that for the human resources department, employees are the subjects of their services and they will spare no efforts to serve all the employees. It is ingrained in their mind that once the hotel can show concern for their employees, the employees will naturally have feelings and belongings to the hotel in turn.

The hotel will have one or two staff party every year and all the employees will be invited for it. As for Hilton, the staff party can, for one part, express their appreciation and gratitude for the excellent performance of all the staff and can, for another, help convey the latest mission statement and development plans of Marcus Hotel and Resorts. Such staff party can be a wonderful method to connect staff and hotel so that the staff can regain motivation and passion for approaching work and projects. As a result, the hotel can achieve the goal of healthy sustainable development in the long run.

It is good news within Hilton that all the front line employees can get promoted as operational supervisors if they continue to create outstanding performance for two to three years. The operational supervisors will rotate in all departments and work with different managers and supervisors and they have to work in each department for at least six months. During the rotation, they will shadow with different manager and supervisor. Front house departments, like front desk, housekeeping and food and beverage supply, have to work as front line employees if the department experiences peak time or appears the phenomenon of short-handed.

Operational Critique

The biggest strength of the hotel lies in its perfect location which is one of the key factors why Hilton Madison can always keep an upper hand when compared with other same level hotels in Madison. Hilton Madison is located in the downtown area and it is only five minutes’ walk to the State Capitol, the center of Madison and fifteen minutes’ walk from lots of dining and recreational facilities. Besides, it is also next to Lake Monona, one of the biggest lakes in Madison. However, the most worth mentioning is that there is a convention center in front of our hotel where there will be plenty of weddings and conferences from time to time. So you can have a fair knowledge that most of people that participate in the weddings and conferences will choose to check in our hotel.

The second advantage of our hotel is that there is no competitor because they are totally nine hotels in downtown area in Madison and Hilton is the very scale hotel that can offer full service to the guests. And the professional team is another significant aspect that has led to the success of Hilton. The whole team from the top to the bottom is pretty professional for work and all the team members work as a family. You can always see the smile on everyone’s face and people will greet one another all the time. Inter-department help can easily be realized and employees from different departments will give a hand to each other if possible. On weekends, sometimes you can see that the managers are cleaning rooms and they have actually performed perfectly the mission of Hilton “show me you care”.

However, this hotel is with its weaknesses. Firstly, this hotel was built fifteen years ago but it has never carried out a thorough renovation since then. As a result, air conditioning failure and leakage of bathroom sanitary equipment become the most frequently complained project from guests. Secondly, the shortage of basic posts in front line departments, like housekeeping, front desk and F & B, calls for urgent methods to deal with. Such phenomenon will deteriorate especially during the peak period from May to October, leading to summer intern and staff from outsourcing company being the main labor force. In this way, it will directly lead to service quality and sustainability being challenged. Another fatal weakness is that the hotel occupancy rate and RevPar (revenue per available room) will also be determined by season. The fact is that Madison is located in the North-central part of the United States and it is near the Michigan Lake, determining that it is with a cold climate and a long winter. Therefore the winter will be confronted with low hotel occupancy rate and RevPar (revenue per available room) due to the severe depletion of business travels, conventions, weddings, etc.

As to my own primary department, it is deemed that service quality inconsistency is a major problem and it is also out of the shortage of hands. The regular employees have to undertake great tension and huge task to both care about both their routine work and shadowing task, resulting in their being unable to ensure the service standards of both high quality and high efficiency. In the meanwhile, different treatments received by senior employees and new employees will hit staff morale because those senior associates earn three times more than other associates and they are able to get weekend day off easier. According to this, choosing the right people to do shadowing and offer a pay rise for those employees that will take the responsibility for shadowing.